DOS(1)                  XR32 REFERENCE MANUAL                19/1/2013

COMMAND
        DOS -- Enter PZTDOS command mode.

SYNOPSIS
        DOS

AVAILABILITY
        Sysop-only.

DESCRIPTION
        The DOS command switches the command interpreter into "DOS
        mode", allowing local and remote sysops to use familiar DOS
        commands to maintain the system without taking it off line.

        In this mode, the normal command prompt is replaced by a DOS-
        style $P$G prompt showing the current drive and directory, and
        only the PZTDOS commands are understood.

        The operator must use the EXIT command to return to normal
        command mode.

        Sessions automatically return to command mode upon
        disconnection.

PORTABILITY
        PZTDOS accepts both the MSDOS backslash (\) and the UNIX
        forward slash (/) pathname seperator characters, and they may
        be freely mixed.  For the sake of clarity however, the prompt
        always displays the path using the MSDOS convention, as this
        is familiar to the most users.

        As in MSDOS and UNIX, when specifying pathnames, a single dot
        (.) represents the current directory, and a double dot
        represents the parent directory.  Thus a command such as "CD
        ../FRED" would change to directory FRED, which is located off
        the current directory's parent.

        Unlike MSDOS, PZTDOS does not maintain a seperate "current
        directory" on each drive, and you will be logged to the root
        when changing drives.  The normal A: B: etc. commands can be
        used to change drive, and the CD (change directory) command
        can also accept a drive letter.

NOTES
        PZTDOS is fully multitasking, i.e. normal router operation
        continues while PZTDOS mode is operating.

        PZTDOS is a vestige of a bygone age, where the OS would only
        support a single foreground application. Without PZTDOS, it
        would have been necessary either to "shell to DOS", or to
        stop XROUTER altogether, in order to perform file-system
        tasks. Nowadays, such tasks are easily performed on a multi-
        tasking OS, and PZTDOS has little relevance. It is included
        in XR32 simply because it never got removed when XROUTER was
        ported to Windows. It was originally designed for "8.3" DOS
        style filenames, and therefore can not properly handle all
        the quirks of Windows long file names. If the developers
        receive enough feedback in support of PZTDOS it will be
        updated. If not, it will be deleted.

DOS(1)                           END OF DOCUMENT